Egg packers have been used for many years to pack eggs in appropriate containers. The container may be what is generally known as a flat which receives a relatively large number of eggs, for example five rows each containing six eggs for a total of thirty eggs, or may be a carton which usually contains two rows each containing six eggs for a total of a dozen. A flat has upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, and flats can be stacked vertically one upon another. Flats are used to transport eggs in large numbers from the producer to the wholesaler. Cartons also have upwardly open separated egg receiving compartments, but also have a lid to cover the eggs, and can also be stacked. Eggs are packed in cartons by a wholesaler for transportation to a retailer and eventual purchase by a consumer.
Eggs are fragile and care has to be taken to minimize breakage. Also, it is common practice to pack eggs with their pointed ends down, that is to say with their blunt ends uppermost. It is the blunt ends which contain the air sac. Two major requirements of an egg packer apparatus therefore are that it handles eggs carefully to minimize breakage and is also capable of orienting eggs from an horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation with pointed ends lowermost. Many different types of egg packer apparatus have been used over the years, but each have their inherent shortcomings.
The present invention utilizes the fact that, when an egg in a horizontal orientation is caused to roll along a surface, it tends to move laterally in the direction of its pointed end. This phenomena can be applied in an egg packer or egg conveying apparatus for simply moving eggs from one place to another.
This phenomena is used, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,327 (Koch et al) issued Jul. 13, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,233 (Thomas) issued Jun. 22, 1976, U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,898 (Moulds et al) issued Feb. 26, 1980. However, the apparatus described therein still require an additional egg conveying apparatus to utilize this principle. This increases the likelihood of egg breakage.
The present application discloses an egg packer apparatus having a basket means mounted on a transporting means movable in a continuous path with a series of egg receiving compartments one behind the other, each compartment is substantially tubular having a front edge, a rear edge, and a pair of laterally-spaced side walls;
means at a loading station for feeding eggs into the compartments to cause each compartment to receive one egg, said transporting means operating to move each compartment from the loading station to an unloading station where each egg falls by gravity from its compartment; PA1 a cover means providing each compartment with a bottom surface at least during a portion of the path between the loading and unloading stations when said basket means is inverted to thereby cause the egg in the compartment to be engaged by the rear edge of the compartment and thereby caused to roll over the said bottom surface to provide lateral movement of the egg in the direction of its pointed end until the pointed end engages or nearly engages an adjacent side wall of the compartment, and PA1 means at the unloading station to receive the egg from each compartment with the pointed end of the egg is engaging one side wall of the compartment or the laterally opposite side wall of the compartment.
There is further disclosed an apparatus having an egg receiving means at the unloading station comprising a chute located so as to be positioned substantially between the side walls of a compartment as the compartment reaches the unloading station, said chute having side walls which are spaced apart by distance to receive only the blunt end half of the egg as it drops from the compartment to cause the egg to drop into the chute blunt end downwardly whether the pointed end of the egg is engaging one side wall of the compartment or the laterally opposite said wall of the compartment. The chute has a free front end from which the egg drops to a further egg receiving means, and the length of the chute is sufficient to enable the egg, after having been received blunt end downwardly to topple forwardly to a position in which its pointed end faces forwardly down the chute and drops pointed end downwardly from the free end of chute into the further egg receiving means.
The transporting means may have one or more side-by-side series of compartments, with said egg receiving means including one of said chutes for each series of compartments, said chutes being side-by-side and each positioned to receive an egg from a corresponding compartment in each series.
The transporting means may have alternate first and second series of said compartments one behind the other or if desired, the compartments in each first series being staggered transversely relative to the compartments in each second series, and the egg receiving means having corresponding first and second sets of chutes, the chutes of the second set being interposed between the chutes of the first set in alternating relationship.
The further egg receiving means may comprise egg receiving compartments travelling at a predetermined speed relative to the speed of the transporting means, and the chutes in the second set having front ends forwardly of those of the chutes in the first set to cause eggs from a first set of compartments dropping from the first set of chutes to be received in transversely alternate compartments of the further egg receiving means when said compartments are at one position, and to cause eggs from a second set of compartments dropping from the second set of chutes to be received in compartments of the further egg receiving means which are transversely intermediate said alternate compartments when the compartments are at a different position.
The rear edge of each compartment may form egg toppling means which engage the uppermost pointed end of an egg in the chute, after the egg has fallen from the compartment into the chute with the blunt end of the egg downwardly, to cause the egg to topple forwardly to said position in which its pointed end faces forwardly down the chute. The egg toppling means may remain in engagement with the egg after said toppling to move the egg down the chute and cause the egg to drop pointed end downwardly from the free end of the chute into the further egg receiving means.